Off Day of the Damned: An Ace in the Hole

Today, I split hairs.

While I mostly enjoy Getting Blanked, I often disagree with the opinions expressed. Today I disagreed with Drew Fairservice's definition of "ace".

Drew's main premise was that Ricky Romero is pretty good, but going toe to toe with CC Sabathia showed just who was an ace and who wasn't.

"When dilettantes (such as myself) wade into the weird world of minor league or amateur scouting, we hear a lot about the rotation slot of potential starters. “This guy is a number 2, this guy is a number 1″ and so on. When it comes to big league clubs, I tend to dismiss this as a silly designation. Who cares about the order the manager deigns to send out the starters? Playing matchups, ensuring rest and keeping the opposition off-balance is more important that labeling each pitcher The Ace, The Number Two, The Number Three and so on."

Well, I'll tell you who cares. The pitchers care. Pitchers are all about routine, rhythm and schedule. Pitchers get labelled as "ace" type or "solid # 2" because that's how baseball people talk. Players like categories and knowing their roles, it helps build team chemistry, one of those slippery things that can't be measured. Such labels can be dismissed if one so chooses, but they are still going to exist, despite certain baseball writers not seeing their value.

I would argue that an ace is determined only within a team. A team's ace is the one who starts Opening Day. Usually this is determined by a combination of the previous year's performance or seniority. It's an honour given and players treat it as such. Starting a playoff series or a series late in the season, and all things being equal rest wise, you go with your best. And this season, Romero has been the Jays' best. All stories from the pitching staff indicate that Romero is their leader, another hallmark of a staff ace.

"The value of an ace is obvious, they’re very good at their job. You can keep all the “stops losing streaks” and “rallies the troops” crap, an ace gives his team a chance to win every time he pitches because he’s a very good pitcher. No more, no less."

Um, an ace "rallies the troops" and "stops losing streaks" because he is a very good pitcher. Throwing strikes, preventing runs and winning is how one "rallies troops". Winning stops losing streaks, strangely. It's not mystical. So I will keep that crap, thanks.

Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez and Jon Lester are examples of elite pitchers. Their numbers and their World Series rings, Cy Youngs and no-hitters all tell that tale.

Not every pitching staff has an elite pitcher, but every staff has an ace.

Romero may not yet be elite, but he is the ace of the Jays staff.

Over the weekend, Jason Frasor made his 453rd appearance as a Blue Jay, breaking the record held by Duane Ward. Frasor has a zippity fastball, excellent mechanics and while he takes his sweet time delivering his pitches, he is, by and large, very successful. In John Lott's profile of him, Frasor talks about establishing roots here, buying a condo, marrying a Canadian woman and getting a Canadian dog. Oh, those Canadian bitches do inspire loyalty. And by bitches, of course I mean dogs. In the article, Frasor is described as being 5'9". That description is described as generous. By me.

Jim Thome is quietly marching towards 600 homers, hitting number 596 over the weekend. One of my favourite Jim Thome moments off the field was when was singled out by Oprah in her audience when he was still playing in Chicago. He wasn't a guest or anything, he just took his wife to a taping. He also looks just like Mr. Incredible.

Joe Girardi, total class act that he is, implied that the Jays were stealing signs from the Yankees using electronic means or osmosis or mind melding or something.

"Sometimes we have inclinations that things might be happening in certain ballparks that we're aware of, and we try to protect our signs." Then when he was asked if that meant using off-the-field methods, he replied, "Could be." But when asked whether he was accusing the Blue Jays of doing such a thing, he answered, "I'm not accusing anyone; I just said we need to protect our signs."

No, you just said, "Could be." As in, the Jays could be using off field methods to steal signs. Could be what, Joe? Could be shitty pitching? All the hitters love that shitty, shitty pitching.